Justin Scoggin’s full worth to the West Salem High School boys basketball team wasn’t realized until he came back.

As the only sophomore on a team of seniors, Scoggin tried to figure where he fit as the starting point guard.

When he missed two important games earlier this season due to illness – against Sprague and McNary – the Titans had a hard time finding the flow of their offense.

With the 6-foot-1 point guard now back in the lineup, West Salem is 14-6 overall, 9-3 in the Greater Valley Conference – after Tuesday’s 61-59 upset of No. 1-ranked Sprague – and the Titans are No. 10 in the OSAA power rankings.

Scoggin’s presence on the court is as a distributor, allowing standout senior Kyle Greeley and others like Tyke Thompson and Zac Bulgin to score.

“He’s come up big in the second half of the season,” said Greeley, the co-GVC player of the year last season. “I think he needed us to know that we trust him.

“He’s had a couple games where he’s had 19 or 15 (points), but he knows his primary role is to attack, get by guys when he can. And he does a great job of getting me the ball; he knows where to get me the ball and get other guys the ball.”

When Scoggin was out, Greeley played point guard. Greeley is a capable ballhandler, but West Salem needs his scoring presence most.

As Scoggin said, the team does best “when Kyle is able to get up like 15 shots a game and me and Tyke are able to facilitate and get our shots, also giving him more open shots and just creating for each other.”

In Tuesday’s game against Sprague, Scoggin found himself being guarded in the second half by Sprague’s 6-foot-7 senior Teagan Quitoriano.

Scoggin frequently drove to the basket and held his own.

“Shoot, a lot of times we’re telling him don’t think, just react and do what the game gives you,” Myers said. “Once he starts kinda doing that he sticks shots in big spots.”

Scoggin’s name is familiar at West Salem.

His older sister, Ashley, was a standout basketball player as a freshman at West Salem in the 2012-13 season, but she transferred to Westview in Beaverton starting with her sophomore year. She is now a freshman on the women’s basketball team at Salt Lake Community College.

Scoggin said growing up he mostly played with this year’s junior class – who are on the junior varsity team – in youth basketball before moving to Beaverton and playing there.

“(Ashley) got hurt and this was really my first option coming back home,” Justin said. “I just liked this because it’s a great school. The talent here was the best in the state, in my opinion. I just thought this was my best place to come.

“I feel like we’re a little behind where we should be,” Scoggin said. “But I think we’re starting to figure out things a lot more than we were at the start of the season, and I think that’s kind of shown itself.”